polkswords:

jazzqueen:

polkswords:

kennyisaliveinourhearts:

This is Venus, a 3 year old chimera cat.

Chimera cat is one individual organism, but genetically its own fraternal twin. A chimera is typically formed from four parent cells (either two fertilized eggs, or two early embryos that have fused together). When the organism forms, the cells that had already begun to develop in the separate embryos keep their original phenotypes and appearances. This means that the resulting animal is a mixture of tissues and can look like this gorgeous (but bizarre) kitty.

omfg THIS IS WAY TOO STEREOTYPICAL OF AN IMAGE FOR ME TO BELIEVE IT’S ACTUAL CHIMERISM AND NOT JUST A TORTOISESHELL CAT 

i’m sorry tumblr + science is usually just pathetic

but chimerism DOES exist and is really cool! I recall a very sad case of a woman having her children taken away from her because her blood had different DNA than her eggs did and for whatever reason the legitimacy of her being their biological mother was in question. I believe it wasnt until a caseworker /WATCHED HER GIVE BIRTH/ to a child that allegedly couldn’t be hers that they did testing and realized she had chimerism and her children were returned to her.

i don’t know if this is chimerism either (which sounds super interesting!!) but i’ve seen multiple different photos of this particular cat so…

I’m just torn over the cliche split down the face -it’s entirely possible it is a chimera! Atleast knowing more images of it are around gives it some possible legitimacy though. I also just looked it up and apparently the condition is prevalent in male tortoiseshell cats, so that lends it even more legitimacy, as tortoiseshell cats are almost exclusively female. Male ones being the product of male/female chimerism makes the pattern possible, I guess!

(via fib)